By: Mrs. Jones & Mrs. Tansley.
Fine Artists and Photographers visit the Cindy Sherman retrospective, explore installations and experience many a masterpiece.
London Art trip: Autumn 2019
The photographers in year 11 and 13 managed to shoe-horn in multiple experiences of architecture, environments and exhibitions that provided various photographic opportunities. Starting at the Design Museum they entered into the visually spectacular mind of Stanley Kubrick: it began with an orange car and finished with a killer space-ship computer. The planning and preparation that Kubrick put into each of his films was on display: from early art works, storyboards and poster designs as well as sets, costumes and props. From here we joined the Fine Artists at the National Portrait Gallery for the Cindy Sherman retrospective. In the Tate Modern the photographers managed to swiftly negotiate themselves around the incredibly original Olafur Eliasson exhibition. Rainbow people, rooms of fog, leaping water, spinning sculptures, tunnels of mirrors all came together in a sensory experience that none of them will forget in a hurry.
With half of our Year 13 Fine Artists opting to focus on portraiture, the National Portrait Gallery provided a vital visual source of inspiration. The annual BP portrait Award showed the variety and styles of portraiture that could be achieved. Styles were varied from the closely observed photorealist, the decorative, to the blurred crown-wearing self-portrait of Carl-Martin Sandvoid. Narrative work of photographer Cindy Sherman showed a smorgasbord of identities projected onto her own body viewed through the lens. We viewed Sherman exploring gender, age and expectations projected onto fragile identities. A visit around the corner to the National Gallery took us back to the greats: Turner, Degas Monet, Van Gogh, Botticelli – to name but a few. The monumental scale of Stubbs’ Whistlejacket (horse) and the gold leaf that adorned the early works overwhelmed.
